Box Score DULUTH, Minn. (csssaints.com) – The St. Scholastica men's hockey team struck first, but the two-time defending national champions and sixth-ranked St. Norbert College scored six unanswered to win 6-1 on Friday night at Mars Lakeview Arena.

The first period would go scoreless as St. Norbert outshot the Saints 15-7. However, CSS would get on the board three minutes and 11 seconds into the second period on an Eric Kraft (Plymouth, Minn./Wayzata HS (Lake Superior State) ) goal. Joel Paiement (Okotoks, Alberta/Holy Trinity Academy (Calgary Canucks-AJHL) ) had the assist.

The Green Knights tied it up three minutes later with a Sam Higgins slap shot from the point. St. Norbert took the lead with 4:20 left in the second period on a nice power-play goal by Cullen Bradshaw to make it 2-1 at the second intermission. The Saints outshot the Green Knights in the second period 16-14.

Unfortunately, the third period belonged to St. Norbert as Tyler Zepeda scored 22 seconds into the period. Chris Rial scored less than four minutes later to extend the lead to 4-1. Zepeda then added the hat trick with two more goals three minutes apart midway through the period to make the final score 6-1.

Colin Rundell (Tees, Alberta/Lacombe Composite (Alaska-Fairbanks) ) had 32 saves in the loss for the Saints. David Jacobson had 27 stops to earn the win for the Green Knights. St. Norbert outshot the Saints 43-28 in the game, including 14-5 in the third period.

The Saints (3-8-0, 1-6-0 NCHA) and Green Knights (9-2-1, 5-1-1 NCHA) will wrap up their series tomorrow at Mars Lakeview Arena. The puck drops at 5 p.m. The game can be seen live on Saints Sports Net.